Portside

How can films and television create honest dystopian worlds if they ignore the racial strictures that make these narratives possible in the first place?

Netflix's Ozark brings capitalism's corrosive effects to middle america through the lens of a financial adviser and money laundering. Right from the opening monologue narrated by star Jason Bateman, Netflix’s new drama “Ozark” makes clear it doesn’t just want to depict a financial adviser up to his neck in danger. It’s out to convey profound truths about money.

“Did South Park accidentally invent the alt-right?” Janan Ganesh asked recently in the Financial Times, articulating a theory that began gaining traction as an entire political movement seemed to crystallize around the show’s “anti-PC chic” and general fuck-your-feelings attitude.

In this op-ed, Lincoln Blades argues that HBO's new show Confederate is an unnecessary series that turns a blind eye to the world we currently live in.

HBO’s latest web-series acquisition eschews Brooklyn for a queer, multiracial, multiethnic arts landscape in Chicago. Welcome to Fatimah Asghar and Sam Bailey’s world.

“Brown men aren’t scared of brown women, they are scared of being boring and predictable if they end up with one,” Shriya Samarth, a media junkie and friend, told me over the phone. “Whereas brown women can genuinely fear the expectations of being a daughter-in-law, brown wife, etc.”

The legendary comedian was once a liberal Green Party candidate for POTUS, but over the past year-plus has taken a sharp turn, sharing InfoWars and Seth Rich conspiracies.

How can you attempt to craft a political, artistically rich narrative that trades in the real-life experiences of black and brown women, while ignoring them and the ways sexism intersects with racism? The bodies and histories of black and brown women prove to be useful templates for shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, but our actual voices aren’t.

Master of None's second season tackles the intersection of queer identities and race, as well as the diversity of New York City, painting a fuller picture of the city than shows that have come before like Girls, or even Louie.

In an era where more scripted shows are being produced than ever before — why aren’t we trying to make more shows like the HBO classic?